After a Second World War memorial was vandalised during an anti-Tory protest after the election, Laurie Penny was one of the few people to defend the crime, claiming the vandalism was nothing when compared to the ‘destruction of the welfare state’. Now the Guardian feminist has turned her attention to yesterday’s protests outside Tory conference.
Several journalists were spat at on their way into the conference centre, while other attendees were called ‘scum’, threatened with violence and pelted with eggs. Although many Labour MPs took to Twitter to distance themselves from the left-wing protesters, Penny apparently can’t see what all the fuss is about. Discussing the Tory conference protest online, Penny says the only protest that Conservatives would approve of involves staying at home:
The only protest morally acceptable to conservatives is the sort where we all stay at home and don't complain. #toryconference
— Laurie Penny (@PennyRed) October 4, 2015
As for her fellow journalists who have been targeted for covering the event? Well, apparently such hacks are simply signed-up members of the establishment:
Shorter right-wing British press: 'Spitting! Egg-throwing! These poor folk and leftists are so uncivilised, George. Pass the pig's head."
— Laurie Penny (@PennyRed) October 4, 2015
With journalists from left-wing publications including the Guardian, the Mirror and Channel 4 affected, Penny — who is a contributing editor to the New Statesman — may wish to reconsider her opinion.
Update: Laurie Penny has responded, she says that despite suggesting that the Tories would take issue with any protest — and suggesting that the journalists covering the event are likely to have had close relations with dead pigs — she does not defend the actions of the protesters, instead she simply understands where they are coming from…
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